SA Schools make several changes for Wales

The Schools selectors have retained only two players and made a further two positional changes for the team’s second outing of the 2014 Under-18 International Series against Wales on Tuesday, 19 August in George.

The SA Schools outplayed France 28-13 while England managed to secure a last gap 24-21 victory over Wales in the earlier match. The other teams taking part in the annual junior international series are England, France and Italy.

The opening fixtures took placed last Friday 15 August at City Park in Cape Town and the action now moves to Outeniqua Park in George before the final matches at Paul Roos Markötter Stadium in Stellenbosch on Saturday, 23 August.

The three players who will start in their second match are right wing Andell Loubser, inside centre IT Jackson and lock Eduard Zandberg. Amongst the backs, Barend Smit moves from outside centre to fullback while Edmond Rheeder will now wear the number eight jersey after playing No 6 flank against France. Smit, who captained Pumas at the Under-18 Coca-Cola Craven Week, will lead the SA Schools selection in the injury enforced absence of Jaco Coetzee. The Glenwood number eight has an ankle injury.

Meanwhile two replacements were drafted after two players were withdrawn because of injury. Mornè Joubert (hamstring) is replaced by Heino Bezuidenhout (Eastern Province) while the place of Michael Kumbirai (broken ankle) will be filled by Kenneth van Niekerk (KwaZulu-Natal).

In naming his match 23 against Wales, Hein Kriek, the SA Schools coach, said that the plan was always to shuffle the team for the second match.

“With three matches to play just a few days apart from each other, we have to plan very carefully, especially with a very tough last match against England in mind.

“For now though, our focus are 100 percent on Wales, who will bring a huge physical presence to the match on Tuesday. They are a solid unit and have a good set piece, so there is no doubt we will have to be up for the challenge up front. Wales played outstanding at times against England and they came very close to a win, so we will have to be well prepared for them,” said Kriek.

The SA Schools coach said he was pleased with the team’s performance against France in the opening match last Friday at City Park. However, he cautioned they will have to improve on their set pieces to combat a lively Wales pack.

“We did well in the lineouts but we have worked hard on our set pieces and also our defence. Our players applied their skill on attack and we managed to make good use of our attacking opportunities. However, we worked very hard on our defensive pattern and mindset and that’s the area we want to target for improvement in our second match in George,” added the SA Schools coach.

The SA Schools team, which is sponsored by Coca-Cola, is unbeaten in their Series matches for the past four years.